PAULO RENATO SOUZA

Minister of Education and Sports

Education:

Economics degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Master's Degree from University of Chile. Doctorate from State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Professional Experience:

Field of Education - Senior Professor at the Institute of Economics at the State University of Campinas. Lectured at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the University of Chile, the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, and the Catholic University of Chile.

Research - Visiting researcher at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.

Administrative Positions - Operations Manager and Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank. In the 1980's, he was Rector at the State University of Campinas, Secretary of Education for the state of Sao Paulo, and President of the Data Analysis Division for the State of Sao Paulo. In the 1970's, he was an employment specialist at the United Nations and Deputy Director of the Regional Employment Program for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Implementation of the Brazil-USA Partnership in Education

According to the Report of the Summit of the Americas Working Group, the development of the education in the region faces three key challenges: first, profound inequality in the availability of material means and qualified teachers, leading to education of substantially inferior quality for children who attend schools in rural or low-income areas; second, the relative isolation of schools, which severely hinders an exchange of experience among them and prevents integration into national systems; and third, the difficulty of harmonizing the various dimensions of educational processes, be they national and local or individual and collective.

In Brazil the percentage of schoolchildren who complete their basic education is still small. This is a challenge for policy makers and educational administrators.

In this context the use of new technologies in the classroom in conjuction with distance learning programs can potentially enhance the quality of education, extend the opportunities for access to education, and promote the adoption of attitudes that lead teachers and students to see learning as a lifelong process.

The introduction of new technologies cannot be confined to the acquisition of equipment, however. It is essential to allow enough time for the requisite change in the motivations and behavior of teachers and administrators.